About
Why Transliteracy?
As bilingual reading specialists, we realized problems with “one language only” approaches to literacy instruction. Our students couldn’t access resources from their entire linguistic repertoire. We teachers couldn’t access students' multilingual strengths on which to build. We sought an alternative to a monolingual norm.
We designed a Transliteracy pedagogy that draws upon students’ assets to develop language, literacy, and identity. Over the past decade, we piloted the approach in our own practice with students and teachers and also with teachers in a Biliteracy Development course. In 2021, we formalized the approach and launched a research study to examine it.
What is Transliteracy?
We revive the term “Transliteracy” to describe an innovative approach that leverages student literary and linguistic strengths from one language to the other, holding three premises: 1) The bilingual brain is a unique and unified whole and a bilingual’s two languages reinforce one another; students’ linguistic knowledge is honored through holistic biliteracy 2) Formative assessments are used to identify students’ strengths; and 3) Instruction is linguistically responsive, cross-linguistic, and asset-based and incorporates critical reflection. The integration of these tenets is intended to develop ideology and pedagogy as teachers intentionally look for and teach to students’ strengths.
How does Transliteracy work?
In a Transliteracy cycle, a teacher selects a focal student and carries out intentionally-designed activities. Teachers select a focus of writing, reading strategies, or foundational skills. They use an observation framework (see resources) to observe components of this area of literacy, in both languages. Next, they analyze the sample, considering literacy skills and oral language influences. They identify a strength that is evident in one language and not yet the other, called the Transliteracy opportunity. Teachers use this as the focus for their instruction. Using a prompting model (see resources), they plan five steps for teaching the student how to apply this strategy from one language to the other.
Who, where, and when?
Initially, we practiced Transliteracy with dual language learners in reading intervention settings. We noticed the effectiveness of the approach with all students, but especially with “struggling” readers who had linguistic resources in both languages and with newcomer students who had knowledge of literacy from their home language.
Our participants have demonstrated how Transliteracy can be applied more expansively. Teachers have implemented cycles in grade levels spanning PK-12; the focus and level of guidance shift according to the student’s age and abilities. Though most teachers apply through an individual conference, many have found ways to use in small group and whole-class instruction.
Transliteracy is a natural fit in dual language settings. Transliteracy also applies in monolingual settings, where English is the medium of instruction, to draw out home language literacy knowledge. Some monolingual teachers have used Transliteracy with bilinguals who speak languages different from the teacher (e.g. Vietnamese, Arabic, etc.), inviting the student to reveal what they know.
Transliteracy can cultivate ML genius
More recently, Transliteracy has been conceptualized as a pedagogy that can cultivate genius and joy in multilingual learners (Zoeller, 2024). This is because it has potential to address both skills and identity -- pursuits that are often kept separate in our teaching! Transliteracy can be situated within critical, comprehensive contexts. Teachers and students report that the experience evokes joy. The framework to the right has been adapted from Muhammad's HILL model (2023).
